PGXL SWR PROTECT FAIL showed up. How di I fix?

Bob Donnelly

PGXL SWR PROTECT FAIL showed up. How di I fix?

David Decoons, wo2x

Well depends on what caused it. The SWR protection on the PG XL is very fast. First, check your antennas and all connectors are tight. Try power cycling amp using the rear power switch.

If you continue to have high SWR power trips then open a Help Desk ticket with Flex.

73

Dave wo2x

Bill NE1B

Do what Dave said. It is also possible that one of your antennas arcs over with power over 1 KW, while it did not running lower power. I have seen that with an insect nest inside a trapped yagi and a dipole wire touching a branch.

73,

Bill, NE1B

David Decoons, wo2x

I have also seen it on a wire antenna fed with solid conductor 450 Ohm ladder line where the conductor has a break but plastic jacket of ladder line is intact. Fine on low power or analyzer but faults at QRO.

I have since switched to copper clad stranded ladder line.

Dave wo2x

WX7Y

Before you do much other then check your connectors, Feedlines and Antenna you should connect a Full legal power Dummy load to the AMP and if it still kicks the SWR shutdown THEN do a help desk ticket.

The PGXL is a power house and I have arced over Antenna switch's, Antenna Relay's, Antenna insulators, coax connectors You name it, I had a end insulator on a Alpha Delta Fan dipole which was 6 inch's long and it created a carbon path the hole length of the plastic insulator had a long arc all the way across it.

I found it by keying up at night and slowly increased power it started arching at 600 watts once the carbon path was made and the fireworks in the air told me right where the issue was.

in fact just today I lost a BIG Antenna relay in my AT-Auto tuner when I was testing a new Balun I built that had issues above 20 meters on my loop.

Start by using your Nose and it will guide you to a arch over if there is one.

Mike-VA3MW

@Bob Donnelly

The message you received is the symptom of some other problem. We now have to figure out what caused the symptom to happen. This is where the comments by Dave and Bret are very valuable.

You may want to visually inspect all your connections for corrosion or lose connections. At least, that is where I would start.

73

Bob Donnelly

This is not my first time with high power on this system. The PGXL replaces my ALPHA-77 which was running with no SWR problems or ham shack RFI problems. However, I did find my ground connection to the PGXL was loose. It was corrected, but I have not tested things this morning. I believe my other problems are ether net RFI related. Will be installing more ferrite filters.

Mike-VA3MW

@Bob Donnelly

The PGXL is so much faster on detecting problems than the Alpha. It has been known for finding problems you didn't know you had.

It can do a full shutdown of RF in microseconds. There is a big difference. :)

73

WX7Y

In fact the amp SWR shutdown protection is SO fast that MY HF-Auto can NOT detect the frequency in my shack when I change bands and the tuner needs to retune to other memory.

Russ Ravella

Hi Bob,

I had this problem on several bands right after receiving my third PGXL. As stated in this thread the SWR protection is incredibly fast. HOW fast is setable. And the settings on these bands was TOO fast. The amazing John Patterson in Flex support (their PGXL support specialist) logged into mine remotely and dialed in the settings in about 10 minutes (which in itself is pretty amazing). Haven't seen it on those bands since. Just for scale, let me mention it's showed up occasionally on other bands as well since. John said it might and to call him to tune those bands too when I'm ready and I haven't been able to bring myself to bug him for something so minor yet.

So, two points: 1) most likely what you're seeing is a little over achievement in your amp protection circuit responding to the specifics of your particular setup which is easliy fixable and, 2) create a Flex support ticket and ask for John. He's the real deal and then some, and by the time he's finished that will be that.

Good Luck !

Russ KR6W

David Decoons, wo2x

Hey Bret, Is this what your end insulator looked like? This was after the three minute timeout timer when I was tuning an Alpha 9500 remote and lost the cell connection. The Alpha Delta is LONG GONE.

Dave wo2x

WX7Y

exactly

WX7Y

must be the Plastic they use for the insulators